Kill Switches

Roomic Cube

So I'm looking to wire a kill switch, I know landsleaving is also going to be wiring one, so I said I'd start a thread, anyone have diagrams or willing to make em,

I'm looking to wire one using an SPDT on/on switch, help would be appreciated!

rcaz

I have one, I used a push-to-break momentary switch, like this one.

I went through 2 mini toggle switches, snapped both of them. I think it's only worth using a toggle switch if you're gonna use a big heavy one, like a Jazzmaster/Les Paul-type pickup switch. The push-to-break switch won't break on me, and I like the way you play it by tapping on it.

Simple to wire in, just find the wire that goes between the output jack and whatever the last component in your guitar's circuit is, and wire it in place there.

landsleaving

I just burned a hole in my pickguard with a soldering iron. The switch is waiting to be wired up now, so I'll just post my question from the guitar build thread here instead since this is the right topic.

landsleaving wrote: »

Sorry to hijack the thread a bit, but I'm installing a killswitch as well, as I said in another thread, and just want to confirm the exact wiring before I go ahead if anyone can help.

I have this switch:

Is this ok? I believe its a DPDT, but I can't remember because I threw out the little packet it came in

And if so, do I wire it like this?


Where the black is where the lugs are soldered to each other, the yellow goes to the volume pot/ground, the green goes to the output jack ground and the red to the output jack hot.

Finally is this wire ok?:
http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=6187&OrderCode=BL85G
Or would I need something a little thicker/stronger?

Knifey Spoony

landsleaving wrote: »

I just burned a hole in my pickguard with a soldering iron. The switch is waiting to be wired up now, so I'll just post my question from the guitar build thread here instead since this is the right topic.

I think that it is wired up a bit wrong, let me try and explain this as best as I can. Note that I have yet to install a killswich in my guitar, but know how these switches work.

You don't actually need to have the two sides of the switch connected as you have with the black wires. You only need to use it as a signal pole double throw (spdt) switch, so you only need to use either the right half three set of pins or the left half three set of pins, doesn't really matter which.

Say that you take the left half: the middle pin will be the audio output (output jack hot), and the top pin will be connected to the volume control and the bottom pin to the output jack ground. So, in this way when the output (which is connected to the middle pin) will either be switched to ground or to the live output jack.

Hope that makes sence. If I can figure out how to upload pictures, i'll have a mess around with your original image and show what I have attempted to explain above.
SPDT Wiring.jpg

Alanstrainor

Knifey Spoony wrote: »

I think that it is wired up a bit wrong, let me try and explain this as best as I can. Note that I have yet to install a killswich in my guitar, but know how these switches work.

You don't actually need to have the two sides of the switch connected as you have with the black wires. You only need to use it as a signal pole double throw (spdt) switch, so you only need to use either the right half three set of pins or the left half three set of pins, doesn't really matter which.

Say that you take the left half: the middle pin will be the audio output (output jack hot), and the top pin will be connected to the volume control and the bottom pin to the output jack ground. So, in this way when the output (which is connected to the middle pin) will either be switched to ground or to the live output jack.

Hope that makes sence. If I can figure out how to upload pictures, i'll have a mess around with your original image and show what I have attempted to explain above.

Awesome. Cheers for that, i have a SPDT switch which i will be fitting into my strat in a couple of days.

landsleaving

Great cheers. And it's the middle lug of the volume pot that I connect to isn't it? Think I have it now.

To upload pictures just go to wthax.org and upload to there, then copy into your post But it's not really necessary now anyway, that was pretty clear, thanks.

Just to confirm then:



Thats, orangey red to output jack hot, blue to output jack ground and green to the volume pot?

Which direction should it be facing for the toggle to be facing down when the sound is on?

Knifey Spoony

landsleaving wrote: »

Great cheers. And it's the middle lug of the volume pot that I connect to isn't it? Think I have it now.

To upload pictures just go to wthax.org and upload to there, then copy into your post But it's not really necessary now anyway, that was pretty clear, thanks.

Just to confirm then:



Thats, orangey red to output jack hot, blue to putput jack ground and green to the volume pot?

Which direction should it be facing for the toggle to be facing down when the sound is on?

When the switch is down the bottom pin should be connected to the volume pot, top pin to ground.

I have attached an image of what i meant, in my previous post which is bascically what you have in the photo above.

landsleaving

That was a lot simpler than I expected, thanks. Shouldn't have any problems now.

Expect me back tomorrow with a broken pickguard, fingers soldered together and a guitar making no noise.

Roomic Cube

I'm going to be doing this also, is the wire to the volume pot another ground?

Knifey Spoony

Roomic Cube wrote: »

I'm going to be doing this also, is the wire to the volume pot another ground?

No, the wire to the volume pot carries the signal to the jack, so wouldn't be grounded. It is just that the volume pot itself is grounded and not the actual signal coming from it.

Roomic Cube

ok, I'm making a regular strat diagram at the moment, but i'll add a killswtich into it so i'll post on here later when it's done and make sure I follow what you mean exatly......better be safe then electrocuted :P

Roomic Cube

righty I just wanna clarify this exactly, heres a diagram I made of exatly the way my pickguard is wired, and the red box is the SPDT switch I have, with a top center and bottom lug.

so where exactly does the top lug (blue wire), central lug (yellow wire) and bottom lug (purple wire) go, keeping in mind that I'd like the signal to be active when the switch is down....

if anyone would be so kind to edit my diagram roughly, i can edit it after then for future reference for people etc etc thanks! :P

68 lost souls

This should do it. If the switch is working upside down swap the two outer lugs on the killswitch, tthat or just turn it around :P

With this the switch selects the output to go either to ground or to a live out. Some people have experienced some popping at times with a kill switch and to fix it they put a high valued resistor (10meg) between the ground and the hot from the kill switch (the two outer lugs). If you use a high enough resistor it wont short the circuit but it dicipates the charge built up in the circuit.

Roomic Cube

awesome man, just much easier for me to know what im doing when I can see it! i'll edit up the diagram for future reference for anyone too, surprisingly hard to find a good diagram!

Roomic Cube

so this is how it's meant to be wired


i've attached a pdf in case anyone wats a high res version or anything

68 lost souls

If you want as well you can put the Blue from the switch to the back of the voume pot since that is going to ground, genereally I dont like woldering to pots though because I have burnt out some in the past which is just annoying.